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Japanese Magical Realism: Tomihiko Morimi and The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl

• Read Japanese Literature • Season 2 • Episode 5

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0:00 | 44:23

Magical realism is a literary genre famous for unexplained fantastical encounters that pop-up in the otherwise everyday world. We’re going to take a look at magical realism in Japanese fiction.

We’ll start with defining magical realism, including a look at why that term is difficult and why some people think of it as controversial.

Then we’ll turn to the history of magical realism in Japan and take a closer look at the work of Tomihiko Morimi, especially The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl (translated by Emily Balistrieri).

cw: brief mention of fictional suicide attempt

Buy your copy of The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl on Bookshop to support RJL.

Transcript, notes and sources at the podcast episode website.

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